THIS WEEK’S CD RELEASES

Spitting Image TheStrypes (Virgin EMI) The transition from teens with talent beyond their years to adult performers could have proved tricky for The Strypes. However, the Cavan quartet allay those concerns with their third album. Apart from closing track Oh Cruel World they’ve all but moved on from their blues influences. Instead there’s a clear Seventies new wave vibe. (I Need A Break From) Holidays is like Squeeze meets The Jam, while The Blades would have been proud of Grin And Bear It. Elsewhere you can hear the influence of Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe. How Did We Did Get So Dark? Royal Blood (Warner) Sometimes one feels the need to criticise a band for not developing their sound between a first and second album. However, Royal Blood’s debut was so gloriously spot-on that it would have been folly to do so. Thus, the classic heavy rock meets grunge sound is only marginally tweaked to allow a little bit more of a groove into the grooves as it were. Don’t Tell is a case in point. That said, piledrivers such as Lights Out and Hook, Line & Sinker will soon become as ubiquitous as Figure It Out and Little Monster from their debut. Chuck ChuckBerry (Decca) It was well known that Chuck Berry had completed a new album by the time of his death in March. The songs were written and recorded between 1991 and 2014. It has to be said that the tracks vary in quality in terms of composition and execution – the man who gave us Maybellene and Johnny B. Goode was also responsible for My Ding-a-Ling. Tom Morello and Nathaniel Rateliff feature on Big Boys, which opens with a riff that served Johnny B. Goode and others. She Still Loves You and the reflective Darlin’ are perhaps the pick of the bunch.